Trevor Pateman

Main menu

This study extends the theories and methods of linguistic pragmatics (Austin, Grice, Searle, Sperber and Wilson) into the analysis of visual advertising imagery. It extends and revises the approach pioneered in semiology/semiotics by Roland Barthes.

A critique of V.Kehoe's technical manual, 'The Technique of Film and Television Make-up for color and black and white', (1957) published in a revised edition 1969 by Focal Press, London and New York. The critique is modelled on the approach of Roland Barthes in his 'Mythologies' , in particular in deploying the contrast of Nature and Culture.

How, if at all, does looking at a photograph differ from looking at a print or painting? Do we - or ought we - to bring different expectations to an encounter with photographs? Should we engage with photographs in a different kind of way from the way (whatever that may be) that we engage with paintings? Do photographs characteristically affect us in ways that differ from the effects of a print or a painting?